Actually ironically enough the metal fans and armor were the only reason she survived. The blast to the fans messed her badly and almost killed her, but the most of the electrify stayed centralized in her fans and hands. All the subsequent blasts to her armor were basically just swinging metal baseball bats at her back(so still pretty painful) as the cloth padding between her body and armor kept the actual electricity from touching her skin.
Metal armour may very well actually help protect you from lightning. Electricity flows like water, it will take the path of least resistance to ground itself and metal conducts electricity significantly better than flesh does. (you can find videos of people wearing chainmail near tesla coils to demonstrate this, the electricity will arc through the suit without harming the wearer).
This is admittedly an oversimplification of how the physics actually works, and you'd likely still get burned incredibly badly doing this but its better than it pathing through your heart and nervous system.
It's the Faraday Cage effect. They were criticized for not knowing about it when Legend of Korra was airing. It seems they, or at least Yee, took the criticism to heart.
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u/Ragna_Blade Apr 26 '25
While holding metal fans and wearing armor that amplified the lightning